In the past bale-tie wires have almost universally been comprised of a round steel wire of predetermined length having looped end engaging members formed thereon. Generally, the round shaped bale-tie wires are manufactured in two separate steps. The first being the straightening and cutting the length of the round steel wire and the second step is the feeding of the round wires into an end forming machine to form the looped end members. The problems of feeding the round steel wire and proper placement between closely spaced machine forming parts have resulted in rejected bale-tie wires and down-time in the two step process of forming round steel bale-tie wires.
Additionally, it has been determined, see for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,450, that because fracture or breakage of round bale-tie wires occurs first in the thief knot portion of the wire, rather than in the central body portion of the wire, it is possible to make the body portion of the wire somewhat oval in shape to reduce the strength of the body portion to more closely approximate the strength of the knot. This provided thereby in economic savings because less wire was required to make a given length of tie wire than was required in conventional round tie wire. However, such teaching further determined that oval shaping of the looped end members resulted in a substantial reduction in knot strength, thereby resulting in unacceptable bale-tie wires.
In U.S. Patent application Ser. No. 446,710, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and now abandoned, bale-tie wires of generally oblong or oval in cross-section with flattened sides have been described to prevent interlacing of the bale-tie wires during storage and shipment and to provide a bale-tie wire wherein the preformed ends are self-aligning. However, such bale-tie wires prepared by flattening the round bale-tie wire between a pair of rolls produced flash which substantially reduced the wire strength of the bale-tie wire and produced edges which interfered and endangered the user of the bale-tie wire during the application around the bale. Consequently, such oblong shaped bale-tie wires having flattened edges were unacceptable to baling press applications.